The SEC’s Salt Lake City office, which gained notoriety in the cryptocurrency world for its fruitless legal battle against DEBT Box, is about to close. This decision comes after a significant reduction in its personnel, including those who left because of their alleged involvement in the case.
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With the office closing, the SEC will have ten regional branches instead of eleven.
The SEC stated in a notice dated June 4 that its Salt Lake City office had the fewest employees. Additionally, a sizable number of employees were recently let go.
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After staff departures, the SEC cites “Efficiency” for closing the Salt Lake office.
In a related development, two Salt Lake office-based SEC attorneys, Michael Welsh and Joseph Watkins, resigned in April. This came after a federal judge severely criticized the SEC for engaging in a “gross abuse of power” by freezing the assets of Utah-based DEBT Box using false information.
As of right now, it’s unclear if their resignations had any influence on the “significant attrition” the SEC reported.
The SEC stated that it “has no plans to close any other regional offices” and that it “considered its budget and organizational efficiency in deciding to close the office.” Based on their current responsibilities and the needs of the agency’s mission, all current staff members will be matched to the SEC’s organizational components.
In the DEBT Box case, a judge fines the SEC $1.8 million.
The SEC sued DEBT Box in July 2023, claiming the business committed a $49 million fraud. The agency claims that DEBT Box offered to sell “node licenses” that would allow users to profit from mining different cryptocurrencies, but the tokens were never really mined, raising questions about the validity of the entire plan.
Just last week, the DEBT Box lawsuit against the SEC came to an end, dealing a serious blow to the oversight organization. In addition to dismissing the case, the judge fined the SEC more than $1.8 million for using unethical practices. The court’s finding that the SEC had deceived the judge in order to obtain an unfair advantage led to this penalty.
From now on, the SEC will handle enforcement actions pertaining to Utah from its Denver office rather than Salt Lake City. This is not a new development; years ago, the SEC moved its examination supervision from Utah to Denver. Therefore, the notice states that businesses in Utah won’t experience any disruptions in regulatory oversight. 
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